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Weekly Menu Plan – December 13, 2009

This week has been full of baking disasters – 3 to be exact. I posted about 1 of them here, the other 2 happened on Saturday. Saturday I set out to make Sugar Cut-outs and Shortbread. The cut outs all stuck to my non-stick cookie sheet. I suspect that my running out of parchment paper & opting to carry on was a mistake. Live & learn. I did try the last 5 cookies on foil sprayed with Pam and they worked much better. So, it wasn’t the recipe as much as it was the method that I chose to bake them – cutting corners because I ran out of the parchment. Note to self: stick dough back in fridge & go to the store next time. Now, the shortbread. Not sure what happened there. I took a recipe from Real Simple (ha ha….that makes me laugh seeing as this was far from simple for me…LOL) and converted it to gluten-free. Normally I have no trouble converting recipes, but this just did not work. It looked very pretty in the pan, but upon removing it, it crumbled. LOL! I have more cookie crumbs in my freezer than I know what to do with! The shortbread & the sugar cut-outs both taste amazing, they just aren’t pretty. I have renewed faith this morning, though, and am planning on making Gingerbread Cookies with Hannah. Wish me luck! I am going with this saying- “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

Onto the menu plan for the week. No more talk of failures. Heather of Celiac Family is hosting the gluten-free menu swap this week & the ingredient of the week is cinnamon! I love cinnamon! I used cinnamon daily. I put cinnamon in my coffee with a touch of unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze; I sprinkle cinnamon on my apples & pears; I sprinkle cinnamon on my almond & pumpkin butter creations. One of my favorite recipes that has cinnamon in it is Snickerdoodles.

I just got back from the grocery store with some fun produce finds. I was shocked to find blackberries on sale for $1 again! Here it is, December, and the blackberries are plentiful! I also picked up 5 lbs of clementines. I have a sneaking suspicion that I am going to be eating all 5 lbs alone. I gave Hannah one for lunch & she didn’t like the “white skin” part. Jon refused it and I don’t think Aaron likes them either. Oh well, more for me, right? I wanted to grab grapes, but not at $2.99/lb. I was also disappointed at the price of broccoli – $2/head! While I am enjoying the blackberries & root veggies, I really miss peaches, plums and watermelon.